On Thursday night, oft-blunt spoken Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) tweeted that the only to stop Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was for someone to get close enough to Russian president Vladimir Putin to assassinate him. Graham tweeted, “Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military? The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out. You would be doing your country — and the world — a great service.”
Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military?
The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out.
You would be doing your country – and the world – a great service.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 4, 2022
Graham’s mention of Brutus was a reference to Marcus Junius Brutus, the Roman politician, orator, who was the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar, who believed Caesar had become too autocratic and thus wanted to replace him.
Graham’s mention of Colonel Stauffenberg was a reference to Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg, who made a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolf’s Lair on July 20, 1944.
Graham continued, “The only people who can fix this are the Russian people. Easy to say, hard to do. Unless you want to live in darkness for the rest of your life, be isolated from the rest of the world in abject poverty, and live in darkness you need to step up to the plate.”
Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military?
The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out.
You would be doing your country – and the world – a great service.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 4, 2022
On Wednesday, Graham introduced a resolution in the Senate that condemned “the Russian Federation, President Vladimir Putin, the Russian Security Council, the Russian Armed Forces and Russian military commanders for committing flagrant acts of aggression and other atrocities rising to the level of crimes against humanity and war crimes against the people of Ukraine and others.”
Graham then alleged many instances in the past where Putin and his government had acted in ways worthy of condemnation amid possible war crimes, including:
“The indiscriminate use of force against the people of Chechnya, including the use of cluster munitions against civilians” beginning in 1999;
Engaging in cluster munition against Georgia during the Russian Federation‘s invasion of Georgia in 2008;
The violation of the sovereignty of Crimea and Ukraine since 2014, resulting in the death of “thousand of innocent civilians”;
The Russian military deemed responsible for the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July 2014, killing 298 civilians;
“Rebel forces supported by the Russian Federation” deemed responsible for a missile attack in January 2015 in Mariupol, Ukraine, that resulted in the death of at least 309 civilians;
Russian aircraft deploying bunker-busting and incendiary bombs on civilian structures in Aleppo, Syria, “resulting in the death of hundreds of civilians”;
“The poisoning of Alexi Navalny, the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skirpal, and the false imprisonment and torture ultimately leading to the death of Sergei Magnitsky.”
Targeting and reportedly killing “more than 300 civilians, including children, while engaging in Ukrainian urban centers, causing chaos and fear among Ukrainian citizens.”
Story cited here.
